A major problem at today's airports is to prevent birds from congregating adjacent to airports, particularly near runways. The presence cf birds at airports oftentimes results in birds colliding with aircraft taking off and landing. This collision presents a serious danger to the safe operation of the aircraft, especially if the bird engages the aircraft engines.
Previous attempts to limit the presence of birds adjacent to runways have included sporadic launching of incendiary devices from stationary locations. The intent of the use of incendiary devices is to produce an explosion to scare birds away from runways and thereby prevent their flying in the flight paths of airplanes and jet aircraft. Further, due to the occasional explosion, it is hoped that the birds would tend to nest elsewhere and thereby provide the area immediately surrounding an airport from supporting a bird population.
These efforts have proven ineffective. The incendiary devices commonly used have limited range of travel, and the stationary location from which incendiary devices are projected provides a defined area from which birds are scared to fly. After a period of time, birds tend to congregate at the peripheral edges of the defined area outside the range of which an explosion would cause a bird to be scared. Birds would, therefore, resume their flight path through the restricted airspace, again, endangering the safety of landing and departing aircraft.